My Amaranth
by Darial Goldscythe Kuznetsova
Summary: Jin fears for his friends when the world all around him is at war. War drama.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** My Amaranth  
**Author:** Darial Kuznetsova  
**Fandom:** Tekken  
**Timeline:** Tekken 6 with altered past.  
**Pairings:** Jin Kazama/Hwoarang, Lars Alexandersson/Ling Xiaoyu  
**Rating:** NC-17  
**Setting:** World War III  
**Warnings:** Bloodshed, war, homosexuality, shounen-ai (boy love)  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own Tekken; it belongs to Namco. I do not own the name Amaranth, either. The song that inspired the title belongs to Nightwish.  
**Summary:** My flower is in the smoke. But he doesn't want to see any of his friends in a coffin, either. Jin Kazama tries to survive in the brutal World War III with his friends, worrying over his lover and trying to destroy his father, Kazuya. Will he lead his friends to the better days, or will he bury all he has left to the cold, dusty soil of Japan?  
**A/N:** Hopefully, not too weird to read. I'm doing my best with a difficult subject. Doesn't completely follow the canon storyline. Don't kill me if this is like, too simple stuff, because I'm also sending this to my English techer, as she likes my writings...  
**Beta: **Salysha, Nemesis

* * *

As he heard another loud boom from the outside, Jin Kazama gave a last glance to the picture he had in his grasp. It was of one certain red-headed taekwondo fighter he had fallen in love with after the third tournament. They had been but 19 at the time they had first met; they had fought to a draw, and it had taken years for Hwoarang to revenge the draw. In the picture, Hwoarang was snoozing on the sofa, his goggles around his neck, and some of the hair falling to his face. The Korean still didn't know he had snapped the photo when he had been sleeping, but it was the dearest of Jin's belongings.

"Jin, we'd better get out of here. If the building collapses, the basement gets it first."

Lifting his gaze back up, he looked into the cold blue eyes of his bodyguard, Nina Williams. She held her rifle ready against her shoulder. Tucking the photo back in the pocket of his leather trench coat, he got up from the dusty floor.

"I'm ready."

They closed the door behind them and not a minute too early, as a grenade exploded right outside the basement window, throwing the door off its hinges, having it merely graze Jin's back. When they heard no more sounds, they took off to the lobby, navigating with ease in the labyrinth of corridors in the headquarters of the Mishima Zaibatsu.

Just as they were closing in on the lobby, they heard the Japanese yelling, followed by gunfire and a scream of agony. Nina shoved Jin back and took aim at someone who was shooting and fired five shots. Jin swallowed thickly upon hearing a thud of a body hitting the marble floor.

But who had been shot? If it was any of his employees, it wasn't a big loss. But if it was his friend…. He knew that his lover Hwoarang was at the front line, defending Korea's borders. His friend Lars Alexandersson was near Seoul, as well, leading the Tekken Force. The other people in the building besides him and Nina were his childhood friend Xiaoyu and Nina's son Steve. And his uncle….

He snapped out of his thoughts when Nina spoke: "It's clear. I think I got that son of a bitch."

They hurried to the lobby, and Jin paled as he saw the familiar silver head in a pool of blood.

Lee Chaolan had been shot several times to his stomach and chest, but he was still alive. Nina started inspecting the wounds of the older man, who was currently in the brink of choking in his blood. Jin kneeled beside the man he had come to respect, no matter how much of an ass he was sometimes. Adoptive uncle or not, he would have been even a little better father than his own.

"Lee, don't try to talk, okay…."

_He's in shock…_, Jin thought to himself. A dark glance from Nina confirmed his thoughts. When one's body was injured badly and the hurt one went into a shock, surviving was difficult. He watched the gleaming eyes of his uncle reflect crushing pain and fear. Blood spewed from his mouth and nose, as he tried to speak, but again, Jin hushed him.

"We need to get him away from here, to the hospital."

"What—oh, my goodness!" Nina glanced behind her and saw her son and the petite Chinese girl come down the stairs. Steve's eyes were on the man whom Nina had shot down.

"He's that Russian guy… Dragunov, or what's his face."

Kazama released a sigh. Spetsnaz was after him personally, but that they had shot an unarmed man without any questions being asked….

"I want you guys to go with Lee to the hospital."

"Jin, snap out of it. We are not leaving you!" Xiaoyu snapped. She stomped around the dying man and simply swatted Jin on the head. "You know that he won't make it. And I'm not stupid. They will start bombing down the hospitals any moment. The war spares no one."

Jin squeezed his eyes shut tightly.

"I just don't want to see you or any of my friends in a coffin…. Not yet…," he muttered while watching his uncle struggle for air, before the brown eyes locked with his. They shared the contact for seconds, until the silver head lolled to the side, and Lee's hands stopped trembling. He was finished.

An explosion shook the whole building. Nina gently closed Lee's eyelids. "Time to run; this whole place will come down! Go!" she ordered, and the group left the dead man behind.

When they were out of sight and out of the building, Dragunov moved, getting up from the floor and dusting himself off. Bullet holes decorated his chest, but no blood was in sight. He slowly opened his jacket and inspected the bulletproof vest he had.

A man with sunglasses approached the Silver Devil and stopped beside the body. His red left eye gleamed as he removed the shades. Kazuya Mishima stared down at his late adoptive brother.

"No help of a dead man. Will you honor the memory of a stranger, Mishima-sama?" one of the men asked with disgust in his voice.

"This 'stranger' was my brother. He chose my son's side. Now that he's gone, it'll be easier to read Jin Kazama's movements. If that bimbo can do even that correctly…." He muttered the last part under his breath. Anna Williams had failed her last mission, and only he had stopped her from receiving a Yakuza tradition of failures. It was like a gift from God, if he existed to receive a letter from the Spetsnaz asking to assist Yakuza in their terrorizing and send one of their officers to be used as an assassin. The gift had felt even greater when they had realized they would be getting Sergei Dragunov, the Sambo master, to Japan.

Kazuya lifted his dead brother from the ground and turned around.

"He deserves a burial." _But he will burn in the flames of Hell…._ "Prepare the pyre."

The Silver Devil's last journey had begun.


	2. Chapter 2

**My Amaranth **

**Summary:** "The sound I never wanted to hear rang in the air…."

* * *

Jin sat in corner of the room with Xiaoyu, who was trembling. She was huddled inside his jacket, clinging to him like to a lifeline. He held his phone to his ear, waiting the person to answer. When he finally heard the click and the familiar voice answering him, Jin was relieved. He risked putting the speaker on.

"_Hello?"_

"Lars."

"_Jin. Are you __all right?"_

"I'm fine. You and Hwoarang all right?"

"_I haven't seen him in hours, but he's there. I can hear him through the radio. He still doesn't know how to shut up."_

Kazama let out a sigh of relief, followed by a small giggle from the girl he had hidden beneath his jacket. He shifted a little on the concrete floor of the basement. The abandoned building was rather remote, and nobody would even guess someone was there.

"How're things going there?" he asked, holding the phone at an arm's length, as the sounds of guns and aircrafts drew nearer at the other end.

"_You can hear, busy. Shit, that was close!" _

Steve winced when he heard the sound of a shot hitting the stone wall all the way to the other side of the room over the phone_._

"_They are retreating. I think they are working on orders."_

"Retreating?"

A loud boom was heard from the other end, and then the line went dead.

The silence was heavy. Had their friend faced his fate already?

*******

**The Korean Frontline**

*******

Team Hawk was thrown backwards by the wave of hot air and rubble. They saw the building go down as if in slow motion. Hwoarang attempted to run to the place where the building once stood, only to be yanked back down by his former Tae Kwon Do instructor and now commander, Baek.

"Don't get yourself killed so rashly, boy."

"But Lars just went there!"

Baek watched the worried amber eyes of his student. He shook his head, keeping a tight grip of the muscled arm.

"He can look after himself. Now, back to your position. This is not a playground. Running now, even to help your friend, will get you to court martial."

Hwoarang hung his head. He was back in South Korea and back in the army he hated. But after seeing what damage the North Korea and Russia had inflicted, he decided to return. They weren't aware of the current happenings outside of the ruins of Seoul.

"Over there! They're from the Tekken Force!" one of the Korean soldiers yelled, making Baek and Hwoarang's heads snap in the pointed direction. Two men were dragging themselves towards them; one had his leg torn off, and the other one seemed to be in better shape, but his legs were crushed. They would both die from shock; that much was clear.

"Where's your officer? Alexandersson?"

"We-we didn't see him… but a minute be-before the bomb went off…."

Hwoarang glanced at Baek, who was scanning the grounds. It was silent except for the aircrafts of North Korea, which were flying away.

"Run, but keep your head low."

That was all the encouragement Blood Talon needed. He dashed towards the collapsed building, looking for even a glimpse of black and red armor or sand-colored hair, but he found nothing.

"Lars! Lars, are you here? Lars!" he ranted while digging into the piles of rubble. He had help from a few Tekken Force soldiers and a few Koreans. Every minute that passed, as he was searching, he felt hopelessness take over his heart bit by bit. If Lars was down there somewhere, he should be found quickly, or all the hope would be lost.

"This sucks…," he muttered, as they finally quit digging and searching. The Swedish man was nowhere to be found. Baek came up to the five men.

"China reported that they have unleashed an attack on North Korea. The North Koreans needed all the forces to defend themselves. They are retreating from here. They claim they won't attack us again."

The redhead sank down on the pile of crushed cement. Silent tears rolled down his cheeks. The last attack had probably claimed his friend. He remembered the first night when Lars had been in Korea, helping out Team Hawk with his own Tekken Force troop. He had told that on their way to Russia, the Americans had bombed other countries as well, preventing any help from being given to Russia. Copenhagen in Denmark, Helsinki in Finland and Stockholm in his home country were in ruins. The Copenhagen bombing had claimed one of his friends, Leo, on her holiday. He had been talking on the phone with her when the planes flew right above the city and dropped bombs down. One of them had been a new biological bomb. That inhuman weapon was something even worse the other wars with the battle gas.

And these countries had nothing to do with the Third World War.

And now Lars himself had perished in the raid. Hwoarang flicked his cell phone open and, with trembling fingers, unlocked it to see if it still worked. Only few cell phones worked now that even some of the satellites had been shot down. Hwoarang felt lucky. He knew that probably in the whole of South Korea, he and Lars were the only ones with working phones.

"Jin?" He heard his love's worried voice talk a mile a minute. "Jin, listen to me. They are retreating from South Korea. We are safe."

There was a moment of silence between them.

"Jin… I'm afraid Lars has died. We haven't found him. We looked for quite along time. I better quit now…."

He tried not to break down in front of everyone.

"I love you, too…," he whispered before closing his phone.

**

**Tokyo, Japan**

**

Jin was torn. He was happy that his love was safe, but he felt like crying his heart out for his friend. The ever-so-polite, open-hearted Swede had come to Japan when he was still young. Jin had chosen him in his gang after seeing the enormous potential and determination of the pale boy. When his intelligence had been revealed to them all, Heihachi Mishima, Jin's grandfather, had appointed him to lead his own Tekken Force group.

Lars was always a few steps ahead of everyone. His realization that the enemy was slowly retreating had been a display of his intelligence. Another one had been the coup d'état and the detailed plan he had mastered in the past.

"Lars is likely to be dead. Hwoarang said he was right next to the building when the bomb brought it down. They searched everywhere."

Jin watched his companions. Nina's eyes remained cold; only a brief flicker of sadness passed in them over her comrade. Steve stared ahead, a hand pressed over his mouth as if preventing anything from coming out. Xiaoyu, still tucked away under his arm, was quiet. Too quiet to Jin's liking. Suddenly, she burst into tears, sobbing against Jin's chest; Chinese words forced their way out.

Kazama patted her back, holding her tightly. He knew Xiaoyu had had a crush on Lars for ages now, but it seemed to be a serious case now as she kept crying her heart out. Nina walked up to the door, letting out a sigh.

"Help her up. We have to move again. Asuka Kazama lives nearby."

Steve reached for the Chinese girl, who suddenly launched herself at him. They sneaked their way out of the basement and onto the streets.

Eerie silence engulfed the city of Tokyo. The once bustling metropolis was now a mere ghost town. Signs of the sushi bars hung from their holdings, glass panel windows were broken and hotels and shopping centers were deserted. It was all fitting for the Yakuza.

It was as if the underworld was ruling.


	3. Chapter 3

**My Amaranth**

**Summary:** "Bless that arsehole."

Kazuya lifted his eyes from the map. Anna was sitting cross-legged on the divan, glaring at the Russian who had stridden into the room and handed a piece of paper to Kazuya after saluting him. He had paid no attention to Anna or her flashy blue dress, all open from the ankle to the hip on the other side.

"Tekken Force officer? This is good news. Focus on Japan from now on. The Koreas are out of the game," Kazuya said, folding the letter and giving it back to the pale-eyed Russian. The Sambo master nodded and left the room.

Kazuya took the clipboard and ticked two names off it.

Lee Chaolan

Lars Alexandersson

The list wasn't very long, and only a few remained. And those persons were all fighting against him. Japan was fighting off Russia and U.S. and Japan itself, when the inside circle, the Mafia, was attacking from the inside.

Jin Kazama

Nina Williams

Baek Doo San

Lei Wulong

Hwoarang

Steve Fox

Ling Xiaoyu

Asuka Kazama

None of them would be safe.

******

**Two Days Later**

******

Jin embraced Hwoarang at the gate of Asuka Kazama's house. Xiaoyu beamed when the two men shared a passionate kiss. Asuka and Nina just shook their heads while Steve slapped himself in the face. Hearing an approaching helicopter, they hurried back inside the already half-collapsed wooden building. Asuka had fled Osaka two months ago and settled to the empty house just on the outskirts of Tokyo.

"You guys made it. I was so sure that you would get maimed."

Jin let out a sigh while looking around the room. Xiaoyu sat on the floor, hugging her legs and looking distant.

"Hey, weren't there supposed to be more of you guys?" Asuka said while doing a head count to get enough teacups.

"Lars was lost in Korea. Lee died; Dragunov got him."

"WHAT?! If that's the case, I think I can finally throw away that envelope he gave me for 'safekeeping,' as he called it."

Jin's head snapped up. What had Asuka just said? "He visited you?"

"Yeah. Lee Chaolan, that slimy bastard. Not to disrespect the dead, but he disgusted me. Wanna read it?"

Asuka got up to fetch a thick envelope from the bookshelf. She handed it to Jin and sank down on the cushions. She started chatting with Xiaoyu when Jin tried to read the stack of papers his uncle had left behind, while Hwoarang tried to read over his shoulder and complain that he still wasn't perfect at reading kanji.

"Nina… take a look of this. Lee was genius. That is…."

"An ultimate weapon… to bring down Kazuya Mishima."

The rest of the fighters fell silent. Asuka's hand was in mid-air, as she had been pointing something to Xiaoyu, when she had heard Nina's words.

"And I was just… keeping that on my shelf! Oh my goodness! Why didn't he say--"

"Lee didn't have the same influence on you as he had on everyone else who didn't know him that well. Usually, women cherished everything they got from him," Jin said.

"I'm afraid it will take a while to get this constructed. I believe the only one capable of it is the one whose name is hidden in the cipher." Letting out a sigh, Nina handed the letter back to Jin, but before he had had any chance to take it, Hwoarang had grabbed it.

"I've seen these ciphers before. I used to hang out at Lars'. That man had too many books, but I leafed through a coding book he had."

"It's familiar…. Playfair! It's Playfair cipher!"

After half an hour, Nina had the letter decoded. The keyword had been Kazuya, which was pretty obvious to anyone who knew of Lee's past with him. Jin was thanking late Richard Williams, for teaching Nina to the art of assassination and decoding messages, in his mind, as Nina showed them what she had figured out. The paper now had the words: "Yoshimitsu can do it."

Yoshimitsu, a Manji Clan member who was currently hiding from a crazyman known as Bryan Fury, was hard to find just because he was forced to stay invisible most of the time when on the move.

"Now, what we do?" Asuka asked after regaining her composure.

"How do we find that freako?" Steve looked puzzled when everyone shot him a glare. "What?"

"I believe detective Lei Wulong would find at least Fury pretty easily. He has to be a tagged man as he runs around with that huge weapon of his."

~~~*~*~~~

Asking questions from the few civilians left was a no-brainer -- if there were any other civilians left besides them. Jin was half-helpless without his Tekken Force, but most of his men had been slaughtered early on. Lars had survived almost miraculously with only a flesh wound near his left elbow during the skirmish when the war started in the first place.

When they finally found someone, the directions to a big, shirtless and scarred grey-haired man with an enormous Gatling gun were easily obtained. That someone turned out to be the man they were looking for in the first place: detective Lei Wulong.

Leaving the shadows of the alley, Wulong looked younger than he was. He was 47, but his face didn't give away his age. He looked tired, but obviously he had managed to get a shower somewhere because he looked even cleaner than any of them. His blue and black kung fu outfit was shiny and looked practically new, and his long, jet-black hair had a few dry leaves on them from his hideout, presumably. Only differences to the fighter he was in the tournaments were that Lei limped his left leg slightly and a healing bruise was barely visible on the side of his neck and jaw.

"I don't know what to do with you, guys…. This war has flipped everything upside down," Lei said.

"Why not try to help us?" Steve said before Jin could react at all. "We need to find-- who was it again?"

"Yoshimitsu. He has the ability to do something we need," Jin said while Nina slapped the back of Steve's head.

~~**~~*~~**~~

They all returned to Asuka's, who provided the tired detective a cool shower and some food. He rested for a while, while the rest kept an eye out on anything suspicious, and then they left to the southern Tokyo, where Bryan was currently reported of causing mayhem.

Insane laughter sounded, and they quickly hid themselves. Bryan was a cyborg; he had a good vision and sense of hearing, enhanced by cyberware.

Nina readied her gun, taking aim at him. She saw something partially invisible move across the street and knew they had found Yoshimitsu. Managing to lock gazes briefly with the ninja, she saw him nod and hurried to shoot because Bryan had heard Steve's muffled sneeze. Hwoarang and Jin both had their hands on his mouth and nose, grimacing. Xiaoyu looked utterly horrified behind Lei.

Nina fired, and the bullet hit Bryan's side without damaging him badly. Knowing the other bullets would never hit him deep enough to destroy the perpetual generator within him, she cursed silently and motioned for the others to leave.

Yoshimitsu teleported behind Bryan and slashed right through him, making him explode. In a flash, he was next to Nina. "I am grateful for your assistance. I owe you a favour," the skeleton-like man said, bowing slightly to them.

Jin rose and bowed to Yoshimitsu. "We would have a request for you. We need a weapon to be constructed, and we assume only you can do it."

"Ah, young Jin Kazama. I am honoured to meet you."

It was hard to tell whether it was sarcasm or a real compliment, but Yoshimitsu's sense of right and wrong and his honour were far greater than any of theirs, probably.

After Jin showed him the sketch Lee had done, Yoshimitsu was more than willing to help. "I want peace, but this weapon also comes with a price. Are you ready to sacrifice for peace, Kazama-sama?"

"Anything."

Lei smiled to himself. He had known Jin's mother, Jun Kazama, and it was clear that Jin was her son. Knowing Jun would be very proud of him, wherever she was, he sent a prayer to the gods above. _Let it be over soon…._


	4. Chapter 4

**My Amaranth**

**Summary:**"Nobody's safe…."

~~~~~*~~~~~

As they reached Asuka's house, Yoshimitsu stopped them. The front door had been thrown off its hinges. Lei, as a police officer, went in first, keeping his gun ready. He returned soon without a word. What the rest saw inside was shocking.

The whole room had been trashed; not a single piece of furniture was intact. Whoever had fought Asuka had been strong. They searched the whole house before they returned back outside. In the meantime, Lei had entered the small temple of ancestors behind the house. Steve, who had followed, was currently puking his guts out in the rose bushes.

"Oh no…."

Wulong limped out of the temple, letting out a sigh. Nina brushed past him, taken aback by the gruesome sight inside as soon as her eyes got used to the dim light.

Asuka Kazama had been killed. Her arms and legs had been twisted into unnatural angles, and there was a pool of blood beneath her head, like a gruesome halo. She had fled from the house, but her attempt to hide had backfired. Now, her skull had cracked from the force she had been struck with on the hard floor. Her throat was black and blue, a sign of having been strangled.

"These all seem to be connected…. Haven't you noticed?" Nina said quietly as she returned to Jin.

"Lee, Lars, Asuka…. My friends or relatives… who were on my side," Jin said with a groan as he made the connection. That could mean they could all be targets as well, all of them. He, Hwoarang, Xiaoyu, Steve, Nina, Baek…. Even Lei could be a target. He unconsciously held Hwoarang's hand tighter.

"This is Kazuya's work, but that brutal style isn't my sister's, so someone else must have killed her," the blonde assassin/ bodyguard said quietly, glancing at the sanctuary as she spoke.

"Yoshimitsu, we need to find another place, and we all need to stick together as much as we can. But first… we need to do something to Asuka's...." Jin couldn't finish. The brunette had been his last connection to his mother by blood. Blinking the tears away, he watched Xiaoyu return with a blanket from the inside. Nina and Lei went on to wrap the girl's body into it, while Hwoarang and Steve dug a grave beneath the jasmine tree. He sat on the ground, feeling the petite Chinese sit next to him.

Yoshimitsu went searching around the old house, the garage, and the shed at the back of the yard. He found enough equipment to construct the weapon, but he was hesitant. He owed to young Kazama. He found a bag for the gear and returned to the mourning group, offering to say a prayer to the gods for her.

**~~~~*~*~~~~**

**Yakuza HQ, Downtown Tokyo**

**~~~~*~*~~~~**

"So… Baek Doo San remains in Korea, and Asuka Kazama is dealt with? You impress me greatly, Dragunov. I'm sending you to investigate the reason behind that explosion at the old market square a mile away from her residence."

Dragunov nodded and left, leaving a very grumpy-looking Anna standing there and waiting for Kazuya's orders.

"It was a shame to lose Bruce earlier, but Alexandersson's death paid for it. He was the one who took Irvin down. You are a failure compared to your sister. I'm leaving to the G Corporation facility. You know your place," Kazuya said, slightly amused by Anna's death glare, which was no match for his or even Nina's.

"Yes, Mishima-sama."

"Don't glare. It makes you look older."

As he left, Anna cracked her knuckles.

**~~~~*~*~~~~**

**Later That Night, 15 Miles Northwest of Tokyo**

**~~~~*~*~~~~**

By stealing a car, they managed to get away from the city for a while. Lei let it slip when Hwoarang simply yanked out some wires and started the car, as the car's rightful owner had even taken the keys when fleeing the vehicle.

They found a proper place where Yoshimitsu could work, an old forge beside a river. The house nearby…. Those who lived in there had been killed and hung to an old oak tree. After burying the wife, the husband and the three children, one of whom a teenager who had managed to fight back for a while, they explored the house, feeling bad for using it like that.

Xiaoyu was sitting in a light pink room, looking at the amount of toys the little girl had owned. She took a hold of the stuffed panda and lay down on the bed, cuddling it. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked at the pictures she had in her cell phone. One was of Panda, her pet panda. Where she was now, no one knew, not even her.

Another one was taken and sent by Steve. He, Hwoarang, Jin and Lars had been in a bar. In the picture, Hwoarang was sitting in Lars' lap, drunk like there's no tomorrow. Jin and Lars were laughing, the older man leaning against the Japanese while they sat in the booth. Xiaoyu couldn't remember what Hwoarang had said; Steve had had a few too many to remember their sayings from that night. She wished she could have revealed her feelings to Lars, but he was almost 30 and she was only 18. He would have thought of her as a child. She was too childish. In the end, confessing Lars her feelings would have been a mistake. But he was dead now, it was left undone. Wiping away the tears, she drifted off to exhausted sleep.

Jin and Hwoarang were in the room they took for a guest room. There was nothing that could be called personal belongings: only a table, a few cushions and a futon. There was a lone painting on the wall, a picture of Mt. Fuji above the futon Jin was sitting on.

Hwoarang watched the Japanese sitting there, hugging his legs and hiding his face. Feeling helpless, he just silently sat down next to his lover.

"Jin… Lars' death was an accident…. He wasn't murdered. Lee and Asuka… those were probably just a coincidence."

Knowing his attempt was in vain, the Korean let out a frustrated sigh and took off the goggles from his forehead, letting the red strands fall to his face. Jin lifted his head up, staring at the opposite wall.

"You know that those still have a connection. You should keep trying to contact Baek…."

"Jin! Could we spend one moment without thinking and talking about the war?"

"What else can we do, huh?"

"Anything! I've seen enough war for a lifetime. I want to sleep a full night without any worries. You know Yoshimitsu will be done by nightfall. And he'll keep an eye on us, as well as Nina. Please, Jin… I know you want peace, too…."

"I can't rest until I've finished this!" Jin yelled, enraged. He hadn't noticed having risen from the futon, but he realized he had when Hwoarang suddenly got up to get them face to face.

"If you are sleep-deprived, how you can defeat Kazuya?" Hwoarang was always picking a fight or nice, long and colourful arguments, but he didn't want to argue with Jin. Kazama despised arguing, and Hwoarang was content to argue with Steve or, in the past, with Lars.

The dark brown eyes of the Japanese slid close, and to the Blood Talon, he looked older than he really was. Leaning forward, Jin pressed their foreheads together.

"You are right… I'm sorry, Hwoarang. Fatigue is catching up with me," he said quietly, bringing their lips to touch. When he opened his eyes, Hwoarang's light brown orbs were staring deep into his soul. The Devil within him was quiet, as usual. Having finally mastered to suppress the evil within, he had allowed himself to feel all but absolute hatred.

Love. That's what he craved and what he received. He kissed Hwoarang, feeling the kiss ignite sparks in his blood. His hands cradled the Blood Talon's face, their hearts beating in unison.

The tender kiss ended, and Jin let out a sigh. Hwoarang didn't say anything, just pulled the other closer, wrapping his arms around his former rival. Jin's lips suddenly brushed against the vein in his neck and he let out a tiny gasp. When Jin first teased one of his weak places and then pulled away, the Korean opened his eyes to see Jin starting to reach for the zipper of his leather vest.

A smile spread on his face and he shed the vest off his shoulders once Jin was done. Warm hands slid down from his shoulders to his chest and down to his hips.

"Please… At least one night without thinking…," the Korean pleaded. Jin nodded, leaning to kiss him again, cherishing the feel. He also was also eager to have a little break before the final day. Yet, the sacrifice Yoshimitsu had mentioned nagging at his subconscious mind, making the Devil within shift in its forced slumber.


End file.
